Sturla Gunnarsson introducing Air India 182.

Last year was the easy selection of Hot Docs. I got to see a ton of films, and most of them were pretty damned uplifting. I laughed at the sheer awesomeness of Billy the Kid, cheered for Girls Rock!, got a huge craving for tea with All in This Tea, got some art on with A Walk Into the Sea, gaped at Seven Dumpsters and a Corpse, and was in awe of Jessica Yu's Protagonist.

It wasn't a smile fest this year. This time around, the theme was death, tragedy, and all sorts of seriousness. Most of them were pretty damn good, but it's been an exhausting week and a half seeing these films, thinking about them, and then writing about them. I still wish scheduling had permitted me to dip into the worlds of Wesley Willis and Kathy Acker, and some of the other docs I was itching to see. I have a feeling they would've helped matters a little.

We always champion the documentaries that do their best to separate emotion from filmmaking. While we recognize that a documentary can never be completely unbiased, we praise the films in which a hard-hitting subject can resonate without the director's emotions overtly influencing the portrayal. But I would argue that sometimes that skewed perspective is not only necessary, but required. With Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father, Kurt Kuenne bares his heart and soul. He shows his biased and emotional viewpoint, and that pulls the film out of the realms of the normal documentary and into something infinitely more memorable and inspiring.

*Note: Readers have commented that IMDb has spoilers, so check it out at your own risk!

As Erik Davis noted in his review earlier this year from Slamdance, Dear Zachary is a film to go into with as little knowledge of the story as possible, so like him, I'm continuing the review after the jump. That being said, what follows definitely isn't a spoilerfest. I will remain tight-lipped on many of the twists and turns that the film takes, so if you don't mind learning the basic story, continue on.

"When I look at JJ, it makes me believe in the possibility of redemption."

Redemption. Reversals. Grey area. These are the things that make the idea of a binary, black and white life so very flawed. There is a certain comfort in the thought of a world that is cut and dry and free from confusion, but it is something we can never achieve. In between each yes and no, in between each bit of good and bad, there is grey area and the possibility for change. But unless we are faced with the wonderful shades of life that lie between, it's easy to dismiss them. However, it wasn't so easy for the pro-death penalty man who uttered the phrase above, and the many others in Chicago who were shocked to discover that their beloved poet and church member JJ Jameson was also Norman Porter -- a man convicted of two murders who had escaped from prison twenty years earlier.

Sorry, ASFR (alt.sex.fetish.robot) fans, this isn't a story of robot love. Mechanical Love has a more humanist approach, tapping not into the sexual world of Real Dolls and non-human sexual outlets, but rather the desire and need for companionship.

Phie Ambo's Mechanical Love begins by noting that soon the elderly will outnumber children for the first time in human history. Obviously, this leads to questions about how these people will be cared for -- and I don't just mean how they will get fed and provided shelter, but also who will give them actual care and attention. The older generations already have a limited number of ways to get personal interaction, even though it is something that is necessary to continue their drive to live. In response to these changes and concerns, there are engineers like Professor Ishiguro who are developing robots not for work or sex, but for human companionship.

There is one moment in Tanaz Eshaghian's Be Like Others that starts by plucking at our insistent hopes for happiness. Hungry for love and affection from his family, Ali Askar tells a story about being thrilled when his father insisted that Ali have breakfast with him. While it was such a simple action, it was one with insistence that Ali had never seen before. This act seemed full of the loving camaraderie and acceptance that the young man had dreamed of. His father poured them tea, but Ali refused to drink it; he realized that this wasn't a warm act of fatherly love. This wasn't a breakthrough moment in their relationship. Ali's father was trying to kill him with rat poison. His father would rather kill his son than allow him to get the sex change that he yearns for.

But it is more complicated than a transsexual wanting a sex change. In Iran, this matter is complicated because homosexuality is punishable by death, and transgendered lifestyles are not an option. However, sex changes are not only permitted legally -- they are also subsidized by the government. It is this strange path of religious, political, and social ruling that Eshaghian focuses on in Be Like Others. She does not argue the particulars of this strange rationale, but rather shows the life and world of those who live it -- lives that reveal a flawed and chilling system for dealing with differing gender preferences and sexuality.

A documentary always needs a skillful hand and eye to bring it together, otherwise the subject can easily get lost in the layout and presentation of the film. However, the true magic behind a documentary is often luck. No matter how much planning and careful crafting go into the film, there is always a degree of fortuity involved -- that your subjects will be cogent and engaging, or that the story unfolds in a cinematic way. This luck is what made The Ghosts of Cite Soliel so insanely gripping, and why this new documentary by Eric Bergkraut, Letter to Anna -- The Story of Journalist Politkovskaya's Death, is worth your time.

The benefit of making documentaries about current or recent media figures who have passed away is that there is a fountain of information to choose from -- video clips, interviews, memoirs, family members, friends. They allow for a deeper and more personal look at the subject, and free the filmmaker from having to make educated guesses based on old sources skewed by translation, agenda, and lost bits of information. But rarely, if ever, do we see a documentary about someone who has passed away where their interviews speak directly to the theme of the film. In the case of Letter to Anna, Bergkraut is fortunate enough to have hours of interviews with slain journalist Anna Politkovskaya from his previous documentary, Coca: The Dove from Chechnya. These conversations not only infuse the film with a definite sense of who she was, but also allow us to learn about Anna's passions and personality directly from the source.

Before two airliners crashed into the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, the 1985 bombing of Air India flight 182 was the deadliest terrorist attack involving an airplane. On June 23, 1985, Air India Flight 181 left Toronto an hour and forty minutes late, stopped in Montreal, became flight 182, and then headed across the Atlantic Ocean bound for London. Just over 100 miles from Ireland, the plane exploded in the air and crashed into the ocean, killing everyone on-board -- 329 people, which included 280 Canadian citizens and 136 children. It was a devastating tragedy, yet it was largely ignored by the world at large, as well as the country that housed the largest number of casualties (Canada).

Almost 23 years later, the story is finally hitting big screens with Sturla Gunnarsson's documentary, Air India 182. Between the tragedy and the time it took for the matter to be resolved in courts almost two decades later, the story of 182 is long and intense. Gunnarsson sorts through it by focusing on how it came to be, rather than its drawn-out aftermath -- the terrorists who planned it, the government officials trying to discern the plan and stop it, and the families who suffered tremendous personal losses in the tragedy.

Last year, Toronto's Hot Docs was full of interesting documentaries, many of which trumped the fictional features that I checked out in 2007. There were pounding beats and screeching tykes with the likes of Girls Rock!, first love with Billy the Kid, Euripides in Jessica Yu's Protagonist, and even messie moms and foul odors with Seven Dumpsters and a Corpse. This year, after an impressive 1800 submissions, 173 films have been picked for the festival, which runs from April 17-27.
The fest will open with Anvil! The Story of Anvil, Sacha Gervasi's film about the "demi-gods of Canadian metal," which our James Rocchi reviewed at Sundance and said: "I am about as metal as your aunt, and I was spellbound by Anvil! The Story of Anvil -- laughing, yes, but also inspired to think and feel, literally moved to the edge of tears by the complicated-simple, stupid-smart, goofy-serious story."

From there, the docs hit all walks of life. Erik Davis' beloved Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son about his Father will get its Canadian premiere, which Erik thinks will make for an interesting night because of what is said about Canada (me, I'm trying my darnedest to go in fresh). There's also As Slow As Possible, which details a man who found out on his 18th birthday that he would slowly go blind, a biography of the late musician Wesley Willis called Wesley Willis's Joy Rides, Isabella Rossellini's Green Porno, a doc about an orthodox priest with strong views about abortion and social issues in The Tadpole, the Rabbit, and the Holy Ghost, a look at a tough American writer with Who's Afraid of Kathy Acker?, and Dreams of Sharp Teeth -- Grizzly Man producer Erik Nelson's look at Harlan Ellison.

But really, that's only the tip of the iceberg. Go to the festival's website and check out all that great films that will screen this year. I don't know how I will choose between them all.

Over the weekend, I alerted you to the awards given out during a ceremony last Friday for this year's Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival. After wrapping up screenings of the final films on Sunday night, they've now finished counting the ballets and have released the audience award winner. The lucky documentary is War/Dance -- directed by Andrea Nix Fine, it details three orphans from a displacement camp in Northern Uganda. Unfortunately, it wasn't one of the films I have seen. Heck, none of the ones I that I will be reviewing were on the list. But that's okay, because it means that you documentary fans out there will have lots to look for.

The rest of the Top 10 picks to keep an eye out for are as follows:

2. WE ARE TOGETHER (D: Paul Taylor; UK; 86 min)
3. GARBAGE WARRIOR (D: Oliver Hodge; UK; 87 min)
4. THE SUICIDE TOURIST (D: John Zaritsky; Canada; 90 min)
5. FORBIDDEN LIE$ (D: Anna Broinowski; Australia; 107 min)
6. NANKING (D: Bill Guttentag, Dan Sturman; USA; 89 min)
7. CITY IDOL (D: Arturo Perez Torres; Canada; 90 min)
8. HEAR AND NOW (D: Irene Taylor Brodsky; USA; 84 min)
9. CHICHESTER'S CHOICE (D: Simonee Chichester; Canada; 64 min)
10. FOREVER (D: Heddy Honigmann; Netherlands; 95 min)

Over the past week, I have been slipping into a number of documentary screenings for Toronto's Hot Docs Festival. Usually things are hit and miss. As much as you can gauge a film by the wording used to describe it in those helpful little reference guides, you never truly know what you're getting into until you sit your bum down and experience it for yourself. But not so for Hot Docs 2007. I've seen a number of films, loved some, liked most and hated none. That's a pretty rare thing, and hopefully this is an indication of a growing, rich documentary scene. Although the fest isn't over, the award ceremony was held today and I just received the press release. Without further ado, here's the big winners for the 2007 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival*:

Best Canadian Feature Documentary -- The Bodybuilder and I, Bryan Friedman (Canada)

Special Jury Prize -- Driven by Dreams, Serge Giguère (Canada)
Other finalists: The Suicide Tourist (John Zaritsky) & Super Amigos (Arturo Perez Torres)

Best International Feature Documentary -- Losers and Winners, Ulrike Franke and Michael Loeken (Germany)

Special Jury Prize -- Without the King, Michael Skolnik (USA)
Other finalists: Hear and Now (Irene Taylor Brodsky) &
The Devil Came on Horseback (Annie Sundberg, Ricki Stern)

Best Mid-Length Documentary Award -- Forgiveness: Stories for Our Time, Johanna Lunn (Canada)
Other finalists: No Man is an Island (Sonja Linden) &
Mothers-4 Pieces (Johanna Straub, Sandra Kulbach,
Michaela Schaeuble, Nan Mellinger)
Best Short Documentary Award -- Man Up, Arturo Cabanas (USA)
Other finalists: Talk to Me (Mark Craig) & Shit and Chicks (Kees van der Geest)

Don Haig Award -- Hubert Davis

Lindalee Tracey Award -- Trevor Anderson

Outstanding Achievement Award -- Heddy Honigmann

*The audience and CIDA awards will be announced on Monday, after the festival wraps.